Monday, June 1, 2009

No.32: Gum Wrapper Chains

Did you ever make one of these woven gum wrapper chains? They were a pretty big item in Tupelo at least once or twice that I remember. Of course ours were usually made with Wrigley flavors -- Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, and Doublemint. If you were going to make a really long chain, you had to chew a lot of gum, or you had to have a lot of friends who didn't know how to make a chain. They were everywhere.

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Chewing gum in school was a serious offense in our day, and the underside of every desk was usually encrusted with an accumulation of nasty, dried-up gum from earlier generations of rule-flouters. Other significant offenses were talking in class, running in the hall, or cutting in line at the water fountain.

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Teachers were allowed to use corporal punishment to keep us in line - and often did. The most common instruments of shame in the elementary grades were bolo paddles and rulers. In second grade, Mrs. Moore favored a yard stick. That was right after she got red in the face and threatened: "If you don't quit talking, I'm going to jerk your arm off and hit you over the head with the bloody end." This charming hyperbole was repeated often, and we understood the humor in which she said it.

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One of the most serious threats for bad behavior was that it would affect your "citizenship grade." We were told that future employers would be every bit as concerned about our citizenship grades as our academic grades. When they really wanted to ramp up the pressure, teachers scared us by telling us our bad behavior would forever be recorded in our "Permanent Record." It's amazing to think that somewhere out there, and probably searchable with Google, is a little dossier on me that notes how many times I was caught chewing gum in school or running in the hall.

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(A special thanks to Eddie and Elna for reminding me about citizenship grades and the Permanent Record.)

3 comments:

If you are writing about gum wrapper chains, then your next blog has got to be folded paper footballs. Eddie and I both remember sitting on the sidewalk in front of Milam during recess playing with those footballs. Lauren reminded me that even her generation played with them.

The “Permanent Record” hoax. They lost mine!!!!! I needed a transcript about 6 – 7 years after graduation, and THEY COULDN’T FIND MY PERMANENT RECORD!!! What would my path have been had I known that? I cannot bear to think.

What We're Doing Here

At some point in your life you realize you have more years in your past than you will have in your future. (That's a pretty sobering thought when you think about it.) At that point you find yourself looking back more often than you ever thought you would, and you find yourself enjoying going over your recollections with people you shared them with.

This blog will be a collection of memories of what Tupelo was like when people of my generation were growing up. Since I still live in Tupelo, I will probably sprinkle in a few observations of the changes our community has experienced for the benefit of any reader who has moved away and may not have been back for years.

What exactly do I mean by "my generation"? I suppose I will take a fairly liberal view of what that generation consists of, but my memories are going to be in the context of someone who graduated from Tupelo High School in 1970. I would encourage any reader to join in with comments. The only requirement is that you have to register an account with Google. If you already have an account, just sign-in and post your comments. (If you'll use your real name, I'd get a kick out of knowing who's reading.) If you want to make an original post, you can send it and any picture you want to put with it to me at jpnail@comcast.net, and I will get them posted. If you do enough of that, I'll probably invite you to join me as a co-author.

If all of that is too much trouble, I hope you'll just enjoy reading and referring others from "our generation."